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'SNOW WHITE: A DEADLY SUMMER' Review

By Colleen Wanglund, MoreHorror.com

There seems to be quite a few movies cashing in on the popularity of fairy tales lately—especially the Grimm’s brothers scary stories. SNOW WHITE: A DEADLY SUMMER unfortunately uses a familiar name but not much else.

Snow (Shanley Caswell) is a troubled teen who hates her father Grant’s (Eric Roberts) new wife, Eve (Maureen McCormick—yes, Marsha Brady as an evil step-mom). Eve talks Grant into sending Snow to a rehabilitation camp for at-risk teenagers, after her mirror reflection tells Eve that she will never come first in Grant’s life. Can you say cliché? Snow arrives and is greeted by seven other delinquents—yes seven, like the dwarves. Soon the teens are being killed off, one at a time by a mysterious hooded figure.

For background, one delinquent tells the others that a girl was murdered at the camp some thirty years ago and the crime was never solved. OOOOH, spooky. And for some reason we are never clued into, Snow can psychically “see” the murders that occur.

Directed by David DeCoteau (CREEPOZOIDS {1987}, THE FRIGHTENING {2002}), this direct-to-video gem is plodding and very boring. The script by Barbara Kymlicka is nothing more than a gimmicky teen slasher flick, and I’m being generous. The story is so thin it’s translucent. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Snow White and it seems as though the flimsiest of threads to the original fairy tale were thrown in for the hell of it.

Maureen McCormick played a very campy, but unattractive, stepmom and Eric Roberts practically phoned in his appearance as Snow’s neglectful dad. I would love to know what the budget of this flick was since there were no wardrobe changes or SFX to speak of. Most of the kills are off camera so no blood and gore and even scenes that were supposed to take place at night had clearly been filmed during the day.

The acting is stiff with most of the characters being flat and there are so many plot holes that most of the story (and I use the term loosely) makes no sense.

SNOW WHITE: A DEADLY SUMMER is a colossal waste of time….you’re welcome.